Coat Furnishings

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We have recently discovered that our Mastiffs carry one or two of the four copies of the alleles for furnishings (long hair on the face, head, legs and tail) which means these traits will not be expressed. We wonder if the alleles still carried by our dogs originated with the Alcibiades Dog.

This trait is depicted in the Molossian Dog from the Greek bronze sculpture from the 2nd Century BC. Read more about "The Alcibiades Dog" at theBritish Museum:

We looked at DNA profiles of other breeds as well as dogs in our breeding program with different pedigrees and phenotypes for similar patterns in this genotype and this is what we found:﻿

Homozygous for the wild type alleles at two different marker loci: GG/CC non-carrier

Tibetan Mastiff

Newfoundland

German Shepherd Dog

Great Pyrenees

Dogo Canario

Collie Smooth

Collie Rough

Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

Homozygous for the wild type allele at one tested locus, and heterozygous for it a the other: GG/TC carries 1 allele

Mastiff, DRF pedigree (does not carry the long coat gene)

Mastiff, DR pedigree (does not carry the long coat gene)

St. Bernard short coat

St. Bernard long coat

Boerboel

Great Dane

Dogue De Bordeaux

Homozygous for the furnishings-associated allele at one tested locus, and homozygous for the wild type allele: GG/TT carries 2 alleles

Mastiff, DR pedigree (does not carry the long coat gene)

Pied Mastiff (carries the long coat gene)

Boerboel

Homozygous for the furnishings-associated alleles at two different marker loci: AA/TT expressed

Irish Wolfhound

Old English Sheepdog

Collie Bearded

Joseph's Kitty Wampas G/G-T/T

Dogs with this genotype carry two copies of the genetic variant strongly associated with furnishings. Dogs that are homozygous for the T-allele are very likely to express furnishings.

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Coat Furnishings , variant chr13:11659792 - T/T

Perfect Octave G/G-T/C

In our experience, this genotype composition is associated with the absence of furnishings. Dogs with this genotype are homozygous for the wild type allele at one tested locus, and heterozygous for it at the other. Together these two loci provide an indirect measurement of presence of the furnishings trait.